hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2020-03-20

■ #3980. 古英語と古ノルド語の接触の結果は koineisation か？ (2) [contact][old_norse][koine][sociolinguistics][simplification][accommodation]

　[2020-03-12-1]に引き続いての話題．koineisation とは，古英語と古ノルド語の言語接触を解釈する新しい視点である．イメージとしては，計画的に建てられたニュータウンの状況を考えてみるとよい．日本のある場所にニュータウンが作られ，そこへ全国各地から居住者がやってくる．当初は様々な日本語方言があちらこちらで聞かれるが，時間が経つにつれ諸方言が混合 (mixing) し，個々の方言訛りの「どぎつい」部分が削られて平準化し，言葉として単純化してゆく．この一連の過程が koineisation である（cf. 「#1671. dialect contact, dialect mixture, dialect levelling, koineization」 ([2013-11-23-1])，「#3150. 言語接触は言語を単純にするか複雑にするか？」 ([2017-12-11-1])）．
　koineisation という過程が注目されるのは，言語接触論において大きな影響力をもつ Thomason and Kaufman が区別する2種類の接触タイプ，すなわち shift-induced interference と contact-induced changes のいずれとも異なるタイプとして提示されているからだ．（この2種類の区別については「#1780. 言語接触と借用の尺度」 ([2014-03-12-1])，「#1781. 言語接触の類型論」 ([2014-03-13-1])，「#1985. 借用と接触による干渉の狭間」 ([2014-10-03-1])，「#3968. 言語接触の2タイプ，imitation と adaptation」 ([2020-03-08-1]) を参照）．
　古英語と古ノルド語の接触が koineisation タイプであると本格的に論じている Warner の論文を読んだ．スリリングで説得力ある好論である．Warner は koineisation 説を唱えるに当たり，両言語話者が（容易にとはいわないが）互いに十分に理解可能だったことを前提においている．その上で，コミュニケーションにおける話者どうしの accommodation と selection の役割を重視したの (344) ．

In ... koineization, English and Norse were both used in the same conversation. Speakers tend to accommodate to their interlocutors, so situations developed in which there was mixing of forms with considerable variation. Over time particular forms were selected, and they survived.

　しかし，この説はスピード感という点で若干の問題を残す．というのも，Kerswill によれば，koineisation は2--3世代のうちに完了するのが典型とされるからだ．古英語と古ノルド語の接触による言語変化は一般にはかなりスピーディに起こったといわれるが，関与する変化の多くは，さすがにそこまでの速度には及ばない．
　この点に関して，Warner は言語接触の状況によっては koineisation に相当の時間がかかることがあり得ると論じている．つまり，古英語・古ノルド語のケースは普通よりもやや状況が複雑で緩慢なタイプの koineisation なのではないかという考察だ (351) ．

The speed of koineization depends on interaction within groups, and can also be slow .... Examples from new towns involve dialects which are quite close to one another, and groups that are relatively compact. Norse and OE are at the limits of mutual comprehension, which means that change is a much bigger job linguistically, and the English-Norse situation will have involved considerable socio-geographical variation and complexity across a period of time, reinforced by continuing inmigration of speakers of Norse in particular area, but as a series of situations involving communities of different sizes and cultural mix, speaking a series of koines which are at various removes from OE and ON, and which become dialects while still containing variation. All this took time.

　Warner 説の事実上のまとめとなっている1節を引いておこう (385) ．

So I believe that there is a coherent interpretation of the history of contact between English and Norse in which they are adequately mutually comprehensible. A (perhaps considerable) period of rudimentary dialect mixing and leveling was followed by an increase in interaction, by the weakening of distinctive elements of cultural identities of speakers of Norse and OE, and by a general willingness to disregard linguistic boundaries .... Then koineization, in which child peer groups especially in larger villages and urban areas may have played a focusing role in stabilizing variation, led to the amalgamation of English and Norse. This will have taken place at different times in different places: early in the Lindisfarne glosses, but considerably later in areas with a denser Norse population reinforced by immigration. Notice that this account includes a mechanism for simplificatory change and selection in the largely automatic accommodation which attends face-to-face interaction between speakers of similar linguistic systems, given appropriate social and psychological circumstances. So there is an apparently motivated connection between the linguistic situation (with its social and psychological components) and the overall type of outcome, and if my interpretation of this situation is appropriate, inflectional simplification at some level should reasonably (but not certainly) be anticipated.

　最後に Warner による koineisation の説明として "a process of koineization (dialect mixing, levelling and simplification, driven by mutual accommodation and selection)" (393) も引用しておく．

　・ Thomason, Sarah Grey and Terrence Kaufman. Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics. Berkeley: U of California P, 1988.
　・ Warner, Anthony. "English-Norse Contact, Simplification, and Sociolinguistic Typology." Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 118 (2017): 317--404.
　・ Kerswill, P. "Koineization and Accommodation." The Handbook of Language Variation and Change. Ed. J. K. Chambers, P. Trudgill, and N. Schilling-Estes. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004. 668--702.

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